Trans-Siberian: From Irkutsk to Ulaanbaatar

On Saturday morning (not that we are really aware of weekdays during our trip) we left our home-stay early to get back to the Transsib. This time we had a Chinese train and it seemed to be older than us. Well, it just couldn’t keep up with the more modern Russian train we had before. It was quite a bit dirty (and they didn’t really try to change that, for example using a dry mob to clean the carpet isn’t really helpful), not as comfortable as the last train and smaller things just weren’t as good. But we were prepared for most things. like bringing our own toilet paper.

But we had a fun conductor, who was a main part of our entertainment. At the Russian emigration he made fun with us about the dead-serious customs officer. At the Mongolian immigration he handed us customs forms in Mongolian. At my request for an English form he just laughed. We are quite sure this was his way to make fun of us or keep us busy, since we got English forms from the Mongolian custom officers. But it really helped pass the time at the border. We had to work in a large group to figure out what they actually wanted to know from us. And during their checks he spent all the time to flirt with one Mongolian customs officer. Never give up, funny conductor man!

Well, the whole process from the Russian emigration to the Mongolian immigration took about four nightly hours and then we were on the rail again.

Our compartment companion for this stage was Fabienne. A nice swiss lady (not as old as that sounds), formerly working for the chocolate industry (taking care of sustainability and ecological impacts) and now traveling through Asia for a few months, but with having China as her eastern-most destination and traveling back to the western countries. It was her first trip on the Transsib, so we could tell her all the details in how the Russian train was much better (which became kind of a running gag between us).

Early in the morning we arrived in Ulaanbaatar and bid our farewell to the conductor. Fabianne on the other hand we would meet again in two days in the steppe.

[Images will have to follow, because the internet (or at least our connections) in Mongolia and China sucks!]